Regional and Country Prevalence Estimates of Unsafe Sex Among Adolescents in 68 Low-Income and Middle-Income Countries.
Adolescents
Global health
Low-income countries
Prevalence
Sexual intercourse
Unsafe sex
Journal
Archives of sexual behavior
ISSN: 1573-2800
Titre abrégé: Arch Sex Behav
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 1273516
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
18 Apr 2024
18 Apr 2024
Historique:
received:
31
07
2023
accepted:
25
03
2024
revised:
24
03
2024
medline:
19
4
2024
pubmed:
19
4
2024
entrez:
18
4
2024
Statut:
aheadofprint
Résumé
Prioritizing adolescent health is a public health priority to achieve the sustainable development goals, including reducing the risk of unsafe sex. Data on unsafe sex have remained scarce among adolescents in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs). To estimate the prevalence of unsafe sex in LMICs, we conducted secondary data analysis on the Global School-based Student Health Surveys among 244,863 students aged 13-17 years from 68 countries across five World Health Organization regions. The overall prevalence of ever had sex was 16.2%. The highest to lowest regional prevalence estimation of ever had sex was 30.5% (28.9-32.1) in the Americas, 28.6% (26.8-30.4) in Africa, 10.9% (9.2-12.6) in the Eastern Mediterranean, 9.6% (8.8-10.5) in South-East Asia, and 8.0% (6.8-9.1) in the Western Pacific. The highest prevalence of sexual intercourse before age 14 and practicing sexual intercourse without condom use were 36.5% (34.5-38.5) and 32.2% (30.1-34.3) in Africa, respectively. Findings suggest that current interventions are inadequate in promoting the uptake of safe sexual behaviors and an urgent intervention is needed.
Identifiants
pubmed: 38637452
doi: 10.1007/s10508-024-02861-1
pii: 10.1007/s10508-024-02861-1
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Informations de copyright
© 2024. The Author(s).
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